Members are encouraged to speak out in your communities when the "Conversation on Health" comes to town
A strong stand to support and improve public health care is needed,
as the Campbell government gears up its push for service cuts,
more user pay and private, for-profit care
BCNU members are encouraged to get involved and speak out in their local communities, as the provincial government's "Conversation on Health" prepares for its first regional visits.
Focus groups and forums are scheduled to begin in Kamloops on February 2-3. They'll move through a total of 16 communities most weekends during the next several months. You can consult the complete schedule of regional events [ PDF 28 Kb].
Pre-reading materials released last week increase concerns that the Premier has designed the $10 million exercise to justify more services cuts, user pay schemes and private for-profit health care. The front page repeats the false and discredited claim that "if demand continues to rise, BC's health spending could be over 70 per cent of the total provincial budget by 2017." (In fact, it's likely to be about the same as it is today, about 40 per cent).
BCNU urges members to sign up and tell the government how health care can be strengthened and improved within our public health care system, without cutting services or forcing patients to pay for their care. For assistance, consult BCNU's key messages [ PDF 66 Kb] for the conversation on health.
When the "Conversation" road show comes to your area for its weekend visit, there will be four separate activities covering the Friday and Saturday.
- Friday morning — focus group of health care providers – participants were selected regionally by BCNU regional chairs and other organizations.
- Friday afternoon — focus group for patients – at this time it's not known how the government is choosing the participants.
- Friday night — forum for health care providers – all health care providers in the area who have registered on the Conversation on Health (COH) website are supposed to be invited to attend. If you haven't received an invitation, contact the COH.
- Saturday morning and afternoon — forum for the public – participants are being chosen at random from area members of the public who have signed up on the COH website. The government wants to keep health care providers out of these public forums, and segregate providers into their own forums Friday night.
To support medicare, the BC Health Coalition will be organizing activities in many communities before and during the Conversation on Health activities. Watch your BCNU bulletin board and the news media for events.
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